With the sun setting everything was bathed in an orange glow, the once large pyre was reduced to a pile of smoldering ash. I checked my surroundings for unwarranted guests and found that there had been an intrusion during my absence, I could detect faint signs of the “witch” that took the girl earlier, she was more cautious this time and left very few traces but I could spot a fractured strand of magic located at the edge of the clearing. Though it was an unwanted intrusion I'll let it slide, for now, she does live around here after all. I looked at the remains of the ceremony for a second before deciding to clean it up before the night ends, it's just impolite to not clean up after yourself.

But first I needed to get the girl someplace safe, I would put her in the cave I awoke in but there were still several unknown factors surrounding it. I decided a temporary hut would work for now, at least until I inspect the cave. I reverted to my usual form and set out to the clearing where the group of organization members was located, they did leave behind basically everything they had with them which makes things simpler. After a couple of minutes of cautious trekking, I had arrived, the camp was largely the same, and there were no signs of the original occupant's coming back.

I cleared out the previous camp before finding a rudimentary sleeping bag which I carefully set the girl on. With her situated, I began to scour the surrounding forest for samplings and suitable branches to create the infrastructure of the hut. By the time I had finished gathering the needed materials the sun had finished setting. With the annoying intense light gone, I could now begin setting it up. First I created a skeleton of the hut before quickly weaving my materials into a dome-like shape. With that done began collecting soil, from when I connected with the forest I knew there was a decent-sized Lake nearby which I will gather water to make mud.

I set up a solid ward around the girl to prevent any mishaps with the local wildlife before heading to the lake. It wasn't that far away, only a few minutes actually. The lake was calm and abnormally clear, but despite its clarity, I couldn't see its bottom. The lake itself was actually on the smaller side in my opinion but it was still pretty big, around two hundred feet across. It was a beautiful scene with the deep red moonlight faintly glittering on the water and a small breeze creating supple ripples. Despite its apparent serenity, I could detect several abnormalities, such as the abnormally high amount of magic in the air and the lake's apparent lack of life. I could not detect a single living organism in the lake past a few feet, not even an insect. How strange, but I have another priority right now so finding the cause can wait.

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I grabbed one of the wooden bowls and began to carefully carve it up, with a few markings here and there and quite a bit of magic I had a temporary anchor leading to the spirit realm. With that setup, I slowly dipped it into the water and watched as the water flooded in. After a second several gallons had entered which should be enough for my purposes. When I lifted the bowl the water level inside dropped to a little less than half.

I closely inspected the water before taking a small sip and besides a high concentration of magic nothing else was abnormal. I gave the lake one last look over before venturing back, but just before I was about to turn away I saw several ripples cross the water. Ha, I knew something was up as soon as I finished the hut I would come back to figure out what going on. I began to walk back and soon I entered the clearing, my first order of business was to check on the girl. She was still unconscious but her mental activity had spiked again, it seems I needed to hurry up with the hut.

I created a small hole nearby and dumped some of the water into it before filling it with dirt, with that done I began to knead the mixture until the water content was evenly distributed, and just to add some flavor I added a bit of magic into it. After a minute the mixture was done so I began to add it to the hut, I started from the bottom and slowly worked my way up and soon the outside was completely coated. Next, was the inside, with this part I was more meticulous and patient, I began to spread the mud in such a way that it would leave patterns and faint shapes, I even copied the constellations above. After a few minutes, I was done, and I had to admit I probably put a bit too much time into it, oh well.

I took a step back and looked over my work, the dome-shaped hut was on the smaller side, only around five feet at the top and around six feet long, it was a light brown and was noticeable against the surrounding environment, that could be fixed with a psychological ward and a few distortion wards. Before I began to dry it out I grabbed several fallen limbs and needles which I used to completely cover the hut, even though the psychological and distortion wards alone would work perfectly fine they would work even better if the object I'm trying to hide was already hard to notice. Once it was covered I waved my hand causing black flames to quickly cover it and after a second I waved my hand again causing them to vanish.